Almost 3m Etisalat and du customers had their services suspended after failing to update their information in the latest phases of the My Number, My Identity campaign.

The Telecommunication Regulatory Authority revealed the figure yesterday as it launched the fifth, and second-last, stage of the campaign.

The TRA said August figures show more than 12m subscribers had registered and updated their data packages.

However, Mohamed Nasser Al Ghanim, TRA director-general, said Etisalat and du suspended services for almost 3m subscribers in the previous phases of the campaign after they were late in updating their information. He said this meant the subscribers could not make outgoing calls, but only receive incoming calls and text messages.

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However, some services were later reinstated after the information was updated.

Al Ghanim said overall 2m subscriptions were cancelled altogether during the campaign. He said the 18-month campaign, which is set to finish early next year, would now target about 4m subscribers in the remaining stages.

“The campaign focuses on the procedures that will be taken by TRA in order to ensure the transparency in dealing with mobile subscribers and protecting their privacy if misuse occurs by users who use mobile services not registered under their names,” he said.

Al Ghanim said the TRA urged the telcos to provide facilities for e-registration to make updating information easier.